[BURPEE] HOWE AND THE ANTI-CONFEDERATION LEAGUE 451 
London, 
25 Saville Row, 
Jany. 19, 1867. 
Wm. J. Stairs, Esq. 
My dear Stairs, 
Your letter, by the last mail, came to hand, and the Petitions, which were wel- 
come, all right. 
We are now approaching a crisis, and within the next fortnight the question 
must be determined, so far as the action of the Government is concerned. 
As soon as the last Mail had gone I went down to Gravesend to prepare our 
case. Before going Annand, McDonald, Garvie and myself held a Council of war, 
and came to these conclusions that, whether with a view to stagger and convince the 
Ministry or to instruct Parliament should the question go before the two Houses, 
our paper should be elaborate, covering the whole ground and contain within itself 
a full argument of the case. It was also determined to arrange the topics under 
different heads, for easier reference, and to relieve the heaviness of a long paper. 
Taking with me what material had been accumulating, and every body’s sug- 
gestions, I went down to Gravesend where I shut myself up for ten days, Sending 
forward to our friends, everyday, for revision and correction, the MS. as it was pro- 
duced. They scanned it carefully and meanwhile were engaged in preparing the 
Appendices. I came up on Thursday night, as you may suppose weary enough, 
as I had scarcely walked a mile or been in the air an hour in the ten days. The whole 
affair is now in the hands of the Scrivener, and we shall send a copy to Earl Carnarvon 
to-night. We were in hopes to have been able to send you a Copy by this Mail, but 
are reluctantly compelled to deny ourselves that pleasure. 
On returning to town I found that the Canadian News had announced that 
the assent of Her Majesty’s Government to the Plans of the Delegates had been 
“informally”’ communicated to them, yet in the same article it was stated that at 
the next meeting of the “Privy Council,” not the Cabinet, the Resolutions would be 
confirmed, &c. As I had promised our paper early in the week, I wrote to Lord 
Carnarvon to say it should be sent in this evening, or, if a day’s further delay would 
make no difference, I should prefer to keep it till Monday. In his Note, last night 
received, he says “I can only say that the subject of Confederation is now being 
considered by me, and that the sooner that all objections and counter proposals are 
before me the better.” Of course we consider this as rather more authentic than 
the announcement of the Canadian News. We shall do our own duty and leave the 
issue to Providence. 
As a mere literary performance I am hardly satisfied with our paper, and yet 
I trust that our friends will not consider it unworthy of their cause. As so much 
had been written upon the subject of Confederation the great difficulty was to 
write at all without repeating what had been already said, and yet to include all the 
arguments which it was important to place before persons who might have to con- 
sider the subject for a first time. This has been done with some success I trust, and 
it will be an awkward document for the Ministry to take down to Parliament should 
they decide against us. Though of course one hand can only write such a paper as 
this, it would be doing our friends here great injustice not to acknowledge that it 
embodies the thoughts of all, and that I am aided and strengehened every day by 
their friendly co-operation and suggestion. 
It is probable that by next Boat we shall be able to advise you as to our Move- 
ments. We assume that our House will meet at about the usual time, and that, 
Sec. I & II, Sig. 15 
